El-Mashaleh, M S (2003) Firm performance and information technology utilization in the construction industry: An empirical study. PhD thesis, University of Florida, USA.
Abstract
This research makes two contributions to construction research and practice. First, the research proposes and deploys a benchmarking model that is robust enough to address the limitations of the existing construction benchmarking models. Second, the research provides empirical evidence that information technology (IT) has a positive impact on firm performance. This second contribution is significant to both construction and IT literature at large. The existing construction benchmarking models fall short in four respects. First, the existing benchmarking models are project-specific. They report project-level industry norms of some performance metrics (i.e. , cost, schedule, safety, etc. ). This limited view communicates a single metric performance on a single project. It by no means translates to the overall performance of the firm. Second, as a consequence of being project specific, the existing benchmarking models do not foster the measurement of the impact of certain technological and managerial attributes on overall firm performance. This makes it difficult to identify practices that lead to superior performance. Third, the current benchmarking models do not support an understanding of the trade-offs among the different metrics of performance. Fourth, the relationship between how much was expended on the metrics and the performance of those metrics is totally absent. This research proposes and deploys a benchmarking model that is robust enough to address the limitations of the current benchmarking models. The proposed benchmarking model is deployed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on empirical data collected from 74 construction firms. The second research contribution is empirical evidence that IT has a positive impact on performance. This contribution is important to both construction and IT literature. The IT literature reports a productivity paradox when it comes to IT and performance. The construction literature reflects a hesitance on the part of the industry to adopt IT because of the low level of perceived benefits. Based on empirical data collected from construction firms, this research uses regression analysis to investigate the impact of IT on performance. The regression analysis provides evidence of the positive association between IT and performance.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | O'Brien, W and Minchin, E |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | measurement; construction firms; benchmarking; information technology; productivity; safety; industry norms; regression analysis |
| Index terms: | construction firm, performance metric, benchmarking, paradox, information technology, evidence, industry norm, firm performance, productivity, low level, data envelopment analysis, construction industry, regression analysis, empirical study |
| Subjects: | social theory and frameworks, data analysis and analytics, computing systems, business, organization, evaluation and assessment methods, statistical analysis, industry analysis, measurement and scaling, research methods, business analysis, management, performance measurement |
| Topics: | Quality Management, Digital Applications, Research Practice, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here